This is the official statement of the Khalifa Sall Lawyers' Union

The State of Senegal, acting as a false civil party, brought criminal proceedings against Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL, Mayor of the City of Dakar and Deputy to the National Assembly.
By judgment of June 29, 2018, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled conclusively that:

– the right to a fair trial of Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL was violated.
– his right to the presumption of innocence was violated.
– his detention is arbitrary.
– his rights of defense were seriously violated.
– the State of Senegal has been ordered to pay damages, the amount of which has been set at 35 million CFA Francs.

The Dakar Court of Appeal does not accept the application of this final court decision and draw the legal conclusions, including the cessation of arbitrary detention intolerable and inadmissible in the rule of law .

The Dakar Court of Appeal also did not agree to annul the proceedings and the judgment despite the fact that the nullity of the judgment of conviction of Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL characterized the violation rights of the defense as provided by the Senegalese Code of Criminal Procedure.

It decided:

– by the unprecedented rhythm imposed to the present process.
– by the many manifestations of bias that are reflected in his decisions already rendered against Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL and the hearing debates.
– by the refusal to appeal to the Constitutional Council of the objections of unconstitutionality presented by the defense and their judgments and rejections without legal basis.
– by the decision to attach to the merits the exceptions for which the prejudicial nature is obvious.

The Dakar Court of Appeal following the Dakar High Court and the Examining Magistrate, has completed demonstrating that the present trial will never be more than an expeditious justice for Ineligible our client Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL in the presidential election of February 2019.

In these conditions, and not to be complicit in a defense of connivance with the repeated infringements of the rights of their client , the collective lawyers in consultation with Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL, made the decision to leave the courtroom to mark his absolute disapproval.

National and international public opinion will be informed in more detail about the circumstances of this purely political trial for which Senegalese justice refuses the application of its laws and regulations and international legal instruments.

Dated at Dakar, July 24, 2018

The Collective of Lawyers of Mr. Khalifa Ababacar SALL